Puppeteer (Adam & Eve) Review

Running Time: 112 min. (cover lists 85 min.)

Production Date: Nov. 2000 (cover) (07 / 13 - 14 / 2000 feature)

Director: Nicholas Steele

Cast: Briana Banks, Brooklyn Rhodes, Alexandra Nice, April, Sky Taylor, Tina Cheri, Alexis Amore, Dale DaBone, Lee Stone, Lexington Steele, and Mark Davis

Initial Expectations: I’ve heard good things about this feature, and Adam & Eve’s Premium Collection is normally very well done DVDs, so I have pretty high hopes.

Initial Reaction: It’s a very well done feature that I really enjoyed and a nice DVD.

Who Should Watch It : Fans of porn with a well done plot and who don’t mind visual effects through sex scenes

Who Should Avoid It: Anybody looking for a very straight ahead couples feature or anybody looking for more extreme sex

Audio /Video Quality: The audio is very well balanced and clear. Although the video looks great, I’m a little upset with it right away. It starts off with the standard disclaimer you see before many movies on TV or on full screen DVDs and videos about the feature being digitally mastered and reformatted to fit your screen. This means that this feature was originally shot in widescreen but has been cropped. It’s extremely obvious in some places as the aspect is obviously crunched to make everything in the widescreen view fit in a full screen view. This really ticks me off as a fan of the widescreen format! Everything looks very nice, with very few signs of grain or pixelation and even colors without many shadows getting in the way. There are some blurry spots, but those and several other areas seem to be deliberate effects.

Music: As frequently happens with Adam & Eve features done by guys named something like Nick, Saint does the music. This is always a big plus to me since I think the very distinctive style of Saint’s music is extremely sexy and really helps out almost any romantic type scene it’s put with. It has a little more of a techno style here than normal, and is also balanced pretty well with the rest of the audio. It’s a little loud, but it does a great job of driving many of the scenes.

Menus: The menus have a nice little bit of animation of the feature worked in. The chapter menu lets you choose a scene based on a clip from the scene and a title for it. It also lets you choose between the scene itself and just the pop shot.

The Feature: Dale DaBone is a man in search of his past. He was found along the road after having an accident and is missing much of his memory. He’s feeling out of control and has now received a business card for a place he thinks might be able to help. His girlfriend has come with him, but he starts to suspect that she might know something about his past, as well as feeling that somebody is watching every move they make. In some cases it even looks like somebody’s pulling strings to make things happen, almost like The Puppeteer, Briana Banks.

Dale DaBone starts things out with Sky Taylor, an incredibly good looking Latino with some overdone implants, in a chair by a pool after she does a little swimming. She helps him feel a little control by dropping down to tenderly work over his cock and balls while giving him some great eyes. He skips eating her pussy and goes straight to giving her the shaft as she lies on her back on the diving board. Knowing how slippery it can be by the edge of the pool, I have to give Dale a lot of credit for straddling the board himself rather than sending in a stunt double in case of slippage. Sky takes a turn fucking him also, riding Dale cowgirl style while bending over so they can kiss or just hold each other tightly several times. Dale finishes things off by unloading his cum gun across her back. It’s a very warm scene that has some very good chemistry to it and starts things off very nicely.

Sailor Lee Stone gets lucky with local harlots Tina Cheri, an older blonde with not so good implants, and Alexandra Nice, a very nice looking brunette with horrible implants. Alexandra and Lee team up to start working on Tina, but things change around rapidly so that everybody can give and get a little oral loving. The girls nicely share Lee’s cock orally, which Alexandra takes all the way down her throat, a feat Tina tries but doesn’t succeed at. Since she appears to still need to learn a little about oral work, Tina laps at Alexandra’s pussy while Lee fucks her from behind and then sits on Lee’s face as Alexandra rides him. It’s a little unclear whether Alexandra takes it in just her pussy or in both of holes, but it’s very clear that she enjoys Lee’s cum as he spurts it across her face and mouth. She moves Lee’s cock over to Tina’s mouth so Tina can get a little also, but it looks like she would have much rather kept it herself. It’s a hot scene that moves along nicely without ever getting bogged down.

Bartender Lexington Steele gives Alexis Amore, a slightly below average Latino with huge implants and a few tattoos and piercings, a tall stiff one after Alexis dances for him under Briana’s control. She shows him her goody box and plays with it a little for him before Lex comes over to play a little himself and see just how hard her implants are. He doesn’t get to play too much before Alexis attacks his huge cock. She can’t do much other than suck on the tip with her mouth, but has no problem taking all of his length into her pussy. They work over each other through several of the standard positions, with both of them putting quite a bit of energy into it. Lex finishes things by spraying his creamy center all over Alexis’ chest. It’s a hot scene that has some very good energy and chemistry.

April and Brooklyn Rhodes, both carrying whips and wearing black wigs, knee high boots, and lingerie, work each other over in the middle of a staircase. They work themselves and each other over naturally and keep the whips handy, although they’re never used. The girls let their tongues work over each others lips quite a bit, but never use any toys. It’s a very artistic scene, although sexually it’s struggles to get to very warm. Any heat the girls build up is frequently quelled by the variety of visual effects in the scene, such as the frequent use of mirror images or tinted filters.

Sky Taylor finds herself drawn to dance through the streets until she finds gentleman Mark Davis. Sky drops down to suck his cock, taking her time to do it right while looking up to give him some great eye contact. Their clothes magically disappear, so Sky squats down on Mark’s cock as he sits on the nearby park bench. They continue with some standard positions as well as some lesser seen positions including a couple standing positions. Sky finishes Mark off by aggressively sucking his cock until her gives her an impressive blast on her face. It’s a very impressive scene that makes me think that I really need to see a little more of Sky Taylor.

Dale DaBone learns the answers to his questions from Briana Banks right before he hops in the sack with her. They start out in a sixty nine so Dale can eat her pussy as Briana takes his cock down her throat. In an odd twist for today’s porn, Briana and Dale only fuck in one position before Dale decorates Briana’s tits. Dale does work over both her pussy and ass, but it’s still strange to only see the girl lay in one place to get taken care of rather than working through three or four different positions. Even though it’s only one position it work very well due to the great chemistry between Briana and Dale.

The Puppeteer is a different and very well done adult film. It often has a slightly surreal feel, which works great as Dale searches for his lost memories. The pieces fall nicely into place, while also letting the sex fall nicely into place. Briana Banks and especially Sky Taylor really stand out in their scenes, and lead the sex in the feature. Briana stays nicely in the background through most of the feature, controlling much of what happens but still staying in the background enough to remain a mystery add to some of the surreal feeling. Although it’s often big mystery why some features get nominated for AVN’s awards, it’s pretty easy to see why The Puppeteer was nominated for AVN’s best video feature of 2001.

Extras: The standard extras are included here as well as a few new touches and new extras. Bios are included for Alexandra Nice, Sky Taylor Alexis Amore, Lexington Steele, Lee Stone, Dale DaBone, and Briana Banks. Trailers are included for Sex Across America: 1st Stop Las Vegas, Sex Across America Second Stop: New Orleans, Sex Across America Third Stop: San Francisco, Crystal Dreams, Dinner Party 3 (which later became known as The Fiesta, Sex Spell, A Midsummer Night’s Cream, Caribbean Undercover, Taboo of Tarot, Watcher, A Witch’s Tail, A Wolf’s Tail , Perfectly Flawless, Devoured, and The Collector.

The photo gallery contains twenty nice looking photos that are arranged in a thumbnail gallery. You can choose a photo to see it full screen, which also lists who the stars are in the photo. It’s a very nice way to do a photo gallery.

Finally, the behind the scenes featurette lasts twenty five minutes. Oddly, it’s done in the widescreen format as opposed to the full screen format of the feature. It shows a little of the behind the scenes, but uses a little much of the actual footage from the feature. This is good and bad. On the bad side, it seems like somebody is trying to stretch out the featurette, but on the good side it’s normally arranged so you can see the scene right before or after you see what happened on the set. For as much of the actual feature is included here, it’s handled very well. There’s also a few short interviews with some of the cast members and crew, such as Lexington Steele, Sky Taylor, and director Nicholas Steele. Of course, there’s also some of the screwing around on the set and stars such as Dale DaBone and Nicholas Steele telling conflicting stories. It’s a nice behind the scenes featurette that nicely mixes together a little of everything.

Themes: Straight, group, lesbian, inter-racial, rimming (male > female), and anal

Raincoat Factor: Medium

Overall: Currently, The Puppeteer can be found online for between $15 and $24 with most of the stores offering it for under $20. This is a very fair price for this DVD. The movie is nicely different and very well done, both sexually and dramatically. The transfer has its good and bad, but is mostly clear and the extras are nicely above average.

Note to Adam & Eve: If you film a feature in widescreen, please release it that way on DVD. Otherwise, you did a very nice job here.

If you have any questions or comments, please e-mail me .

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